Interchangeable arm rest for furniture



Jan. 22, 1963 s. KRIS 3,074,762

INTERCHANGEABLE ARM REST FOR FURNITURE Filed Oct. 10. 1960 W 4 54/71/54 Km;

3,074,762 lNEEI -ifiHAE IGEABLE AEM RET FUR FURNETURE This invention relates to furniture and more particularly to an arm rest for articles of furniture such as chairs, davenports, sofas, lounges, etc. it is well known that the portions of such furniture which are subject to the most Wear and soilage are the arm rests thereof and, in most cases, the entire article of furniture must either be discarded or recovered although the only portions thereof which are in disrepair are the arm rests.

The principal object of this invention is to provide removable and interchangeable arms for pieces of furniture so that when the arm rests become worn or soiled, they can be quickly and easily renewed or replaced without the use of tools so that it will not be necessary to discard or replace the entire piece of furniture.

It is also well known that the ornamental appearance and design of upholstered furniture pieces can be completely changed by simply changing the design of the arms of the pieces. This invention provides an easily interchangeable arrn rest whereby a multiplicity of designs can be obtained for furniture pieces at the will of the owner without requiring any rebuilding or reconstruction of the pieces.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efficiency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is bad to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

in the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating one extremity of a piece of furniture, such as a davenport, showing the improved arm rest in place thereon;

FIG. 2 is a similar fragmentary perspective view illustrating the improved arm rest removed therefrom;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the bottom of the arm rest which has been removed in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross section through the arm rest taken on the line 4-4, FlG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a plurality of different types of arm rests which may be employed in this invention; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary cross section through an alternate arm and arm rest illustrating an alternate form of the invention.

While the invention has been illustrated as applied to an elongated piece of upholstered furniture such as a davenport, it would be equally applicable to other types of furniture such as an upholstered chair. The furniture piece illustrated comprises a back rest it, a seat portion 11, seat cushions 12, legs 13 and two arm portions 14.

This invention contemplates terminating the upper extremity of the arm portions 14- substantialiy in the plane of the tops of the cushions 12 and closing the tops of the arm portions by means of substantially flat top boards 15 from which suitable mounting devices such as dowel pins to arise, as shown in FIG. 2.

hired rates ifate u ine The invention comprises arm rests 1'7, of any desired design, provided with baseboards 18 having means for cooperating with the mounting devices on the top boards 15, such as properly placed and properly sized openings 19 for receiving the dowel pins 16. When in use, the baseboards 1% are positioned on the top boards 15 with the dowel pins 16 interengaging with the openings 19 to create the complete appearance as shown in FIG. 1.

A plurality of differently designed arm rests, as illustrated in FIG. 5, can be provided for the same piece of furniture, such as a contour rest it), a substantially rectangular, elongated rest 21 or an inclined contoured rest 22, each of which is built up upon a baseboard similar to the baseboard 13 previously described having dowel pin openings whereby they will be interchangeable with each other and with the rests 17 upon the top boards 15.

As illustrated, the dowel pins are shown placed in the top boards 15 and enter the openings 19 in the baseboards 18. It is, of course, within the skill of anyone skilled in the art to reverse this procedure, that is, to place the dowel pins in the baseboard 18 and the openings in the top board 15.

Various other equivalent means may be employed for aligning the arm rests in register with the arm portions 14 and maintaining them in place thereon. One such alternate method is illustrated in cross section in FIG. 6 in which a bordering flange 23 extends upwardly about the periphery of an upper arm panel member 24 on an arm rest 27 and a baseboard 25 carrying a suitable arm rest 26 is simply positioned within the confines of the bordering flange 23.

The arm rests, being relatively heavy, retain themselves in place by gravity and ordinarily no locking means are necessary to resist accidentally lifting them from place. However, should such resistance be desired, it can be accomplished in many ways such as by means of hooks, bolts or screws.

The upward movement can, for instance, be resisted by placing a permanen magnet 28 of any suitable type in the arm panel member 24 and placing a magneticallyattractable plate 29 on the bottom of the baseboard 25, as shown in FIG. 6. It can be seen that the magnetic attraction will act to prevent accidental lifting of the arm rest but will not prevent manual lifting thereof when desired. The principal feature of the invention is to provide interchangeable arm rests for the arms of pieces of furnitur Should the original arm rests become soiled or worn, they can be quickly and easily removed and replaced by simply lifting the old rests off and replacing them with new or renovated arm rests. Also, the complete design of the piece of furniture can be modernized and altered by simply selecting any design of arm rest, such as those shown in FIG. 5, then placing them upon the top boards 15 of the arm portions 14.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be varied within the scope of the appended claim, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

Means for retaining an arm rest element of the cushioned type having a flat, rigid, horizontal, non-flexible 1% 4 baseboard on a completely enclosed arm rest support Referenees Cited in the file of this patent having a flat, rigid, horizontal, non-flexible topboard cor- UNITED STATES PATENTS responding in outline to the baseboard, comprising: an elongated, rigid strip having a straight, vertical cross- 319,491 King June 9, 1885 section secured to said topboard about the entire periph- 5 2,217,514 Henry Oct. 8, 1940 ery of the latter, the top of said strip lying in a plane 2,604,147 Havel July 22, 1952 above the upper surface of said topboard and the bottom 2,901,028 Botte ille Aug, 25, 1959 of said strip lying in a plane below the upper surface of said top board so that when said baseboard is resting FOREIGN PATENTS upon said topboard, said strip will vertically overlap the 10 peripheral edges of both boards to prevent relative hori- 4281287 Gmat Bmam May 1935 zontal movement thereb-etween, said arm rest element being capable of being lifted vertically from the confines of said strip. 

